The Mare

Velveteen Vargas is an 11-year-old from Brooklyn who is granted a summer vacation in the country, courtesy of the nonprofit Fresh Air Fund. Her host family is a couple in upstate New York: Ginger, a failed artist on the fringe of Alcoholics Anonymous; and Paul, an academic who wonders what it will mean to "make a difference" in such a contrived situation.

Truth & Beauty: A Friendship

The author of Bel Canto, winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Orange Prize, and long-running New York Times best seller, turns to nonfiction in a moving chronicle of her decades-long friendship with the critically acclaimed and recently deceased author, Lucy Grealy.

Coming Clean

Kim Miller is an immaculately put-together woman with a great career, a loving boyfriend, and a tidy apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. You would never guess that Kim grew up behind the closed doors of her family’s idyllic Long Island house, navigating between teetering stacks of aging newspapers, broken computers, and boxes upon boxes of unused junk festering in every room - the product of her father’s painful and unending struggle with hoarding. In this moving coming-of-age story, Kim brings to life her rat-infested home and her childhood consumed by concealing her father’s shameful secret from friends.

Another Brooklyn: A Novel

Running into a long-ago friend sets memories from the 1970s in motion for August, transporting her to a time and a place where friendship was everything - until it wasn't. For August and her girls, sharing confidences as they ambled through neighborhood streets, Brooklyn was a place where they believed that they were beautiful, talented, brilliant - a part of a future that belonged to them.

Imagine Me Gone

When Margaret's fiancé, John, is hospitalized for depression in 1960s London, she faces a choice: carry on with their plans despite what she now knows of his condition, or back away from the suffering it may bring her. She decides to marry him. Imagine Me Gone is the unforgettable story of what unfolds from this act of love and faith. At the heart of it is their eldest son, Michael, a brilliant, anxious music fanatic who makes sense of the world through parody.

Tucker's Way: The Tucker Series, Book 1

After enduring a childhood of horrific abuse and crushing poverty, Tucker seeks refuge in her rural Tennessee home. The three grandchildren she is raising are her only connection to the outside, and her demeanor is purposefully rough. But her world is turned upside down when a new neighbor, Ella, moves into the old McDaniel place next door.

Amy A. Dye says:"Best novel I have read in a long time; anxious to listen to sequels!!!!"

Our Souls at Night: A Novel

In the familiar setting of Holt, Colorado, home to all of Kent Haruf's inimitable fiction, Addie Moore pays an unexpected visit to a neighbor, Louis Waters. Her husband died years ago, as did his wife, and in such a small town they naturally have known of each other for decades; in fact, Addie was quite fond of Louis's wife.

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry

The irascible A. J. Fikry, owner of Island Books - the only bookstore on Alice Island - has already lost his wife. Now his most prized possession, a rare book, has been stolen from right under his nose in the most embarrassing of circumstances. The store itself, it seems, will be next to go. One night upon closing, he discovers a toddler in his children’s section with a note from her mother pinned to her Elmo doll: I want Maya to grow up in a place with books and among people who care about such kinds of things. I love her very much, but I can no longer take care of her.

Tinsel Tales: Favorite Holiday Stories from NPR

Ho ho ho! Here's what to listen to while driving to the mall, wrapping gifts, entertaining friends, or relaxing in front of a crackling holiday fire. In Scott Simon's modern version of the Christmas story, Jesus is born in an abandoned factory near Cleveland and the Three Wise Persons bring Chipotle gift cards. Claudia Sanchez gives a Latin accent to "A Visit from St. Nicholas". Barbara Bradley Hagerty explores what Christmas means for the boy choristers of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. (Hint: Handel).

Second Glance: A Novel

An intricate tale of love, haunting memories, and renewal, Second Glance begins in current-day Vermont, where an old man puts a piece of land up for sale and unintentionally raises protest from the local Abenaki Indian tribe, who insist it's a burial ground. When odd, supernatural events plague the town of Comtosook, a ghost hunter is hired by the developer to help convince the residents that there's nothing spiritual about the property.

The Round House: A Novel

One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and 13-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared.

A Doll House

A new recording of Henrik Ibsen's masterpiece, starring Calista Flockhart. Nora Helmer has everything a young housewife could want: beautiful children, an adoring husband, and a bright future. But when a carelessly buried secret rises from the past, Nora's well-calibrated domestic ideal starts to crumble. Ibsen's play is as fresh today as it was when it first stormed the stages of 19th-century Europe.

Mrs Queen Takes the Train

An absolute delight of a debut novel by William Kuhn - author of Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books - Mrs Queen Takes the Train wittily imagines the kerfuffle that transpires when a bored Queen Elizabeth strolls out of the palace in search of a little fun, leaving behind a desperate team of courtiers who must find the missing Windsor before a national scandal erupts.

H Is for Hawk

When Helen MacDonald's father died suddenly on a London street, she was devastated. An experienced falconer captivated by hawks since childhood, she'd never before been tempted to train one of the most vicious predators: the goshawk. But in her grief, she saw that the goshawk's fierce and feral anger mirrored her own.

Illumination Night

Illumination Night follows the lives of a young blond giant who is as beautiful as he is frightening; an old woman at the end of her life whose last mission is to save her granddaughter's soul; a family torn apart by a wife's fears and a husband's unrealized desires; and the high school girl who comes to Martha's Vineyard against her will, who steals husbands and cars, and who will bring everyone together in a web of yearning, sin, and ultimate redemption.

The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride

In this gripping narrative, New York Times best-selling author Daniel James Brown sheds new light on one of the most infamous events in American history. Following every painful footstep of Sarah's journey with the Donner Party, Brown produces a tale both spellbinding and richly informative.

The Light of the World: A Memoir

In The Light of the World, Elizabeth Alexander finds herself at an existential crossroads after the sudden death of her husband, who was just 50. Reflecting with gratitude on the exquisite beauty of her married life that was, grappling with the subsequent void, and feeling a reenergized devotion to her two teenage sons, Alexander channels her poetic sensibilities into a rich, lucid prose that describes a very personal and yet universal quest for meaning, understanding, and acceptance.

Shakespeare: The World as Stage

William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself.

Pastel Orphans

In 1930s Berlin, young Henrik, the son of a Jewish father and Aryan mother, watches the world around him crumbling: people are rioting in the streets, a strange yellow star begins appearing in shop windows, and friends are forced to move - or they simply disappear.

Tibetan Peach Pie: A True Account of an Imaginative Life

Internationally best-selling novelist and American icon Tom Robbins delivers the long-awaited tale of his wild life and times, both at home and around the globe. The grandchild of Baptist preachers, Robbins would become over the course of half a century a poet-interruptus, an air force weatherman, a radio DJ, an art-critic-turned-psychedelic-journeyman, a world-famous novelist, and a counter-culture hero, leading a life as unlikely, magical, and bizarre as those of his quixotic characters.

Did You Ever Have A Family

On the eve of her daughter's wedding, June Reid's life is completely devastated when a shocking disaster takes the lives of her daughter, her daughter's fiancé, her ex-husband, and her boyfriend, Luke - her entire family, all gone in a moment. And June is the only survivor.

Judy Moody (Book 1)

"Are you in a bad mood or something?" asked Rocky. "Or something," said Judy Moody. Bad moods, good moods, even back-to-school moods - Judy Moody has them all! When her teacher assigns the class the task of creating "Me" collages, it puts Judy in a cut-and-paste mood! Meet Judy Moody, her little "bother" Stink, her best friend Rocky, and her "pest" friend Frank Pearl. They're guaranteed to put you in a very Judy Moody mood... or something.

The First Phone Call from Heaven: A Novel

The First Phone Call from Heaven tells the story of a small town on Lake Michigan that gets worldwide attention when its citizens start receiving phone calls from the afterlife. Is it the greatest miracle ever or a massive hoax? Sully Harding, a grief-stricken single father, is determined to find out. An allegory about the power of belief - and a page-turner that will touch your soul - Albom's masterful storytelling has never been so moving and unexpected.

Elizabeth Is Missing

In this darkly riveting debut novel - a sophisticated psychological mystery that is also an heartbreakingly honest meditation on memory, identity, and aging - an elderly woman descending into dementia embarks on a desperate quest to find the best friend she believes has disappeared, and her search for the truth will go back decades and have shattering consequences.

Publisher's Summary

When his daughter, Amy—a gifted doctor, mother, and wife—collapsed and died from an asymptomatic heart condition, Roger Rosenblatt and his wife, Ginny, left their home on the South Shore of Long Island to move in with their son-in-law, Harris, and their three young grandchildren.

With the wit, heart, precision, and depth of understanding that has characterized his work, Roger Rosenblatt peels back the layers on this most personal of losses to create both a tribute to his late daughter and a testament to familial love. The day Amy died, Harris told Ginny and Roger, “It’s impossible.” Rosenblatt’s story tells how a family makes the possible out of the impossible.

What the Critics Say

“A painfully beautiful memoir telling how grandparents are made over into parents, how people die out of order, how time goes backwards. Written with such restraint as to be both heartbreaking and instructive.” (E. L. Doctorow)

“[A] beautiful account of human loss, measured by the steady effort to fill in the void.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

Yes, this is a sad story, but it is so lovingly told by Rosenblatt that it's worth the listen. The author handles the heavy topics of death and grief gracefully, weaving daily household tasks into this memoir of survival in the face of a family tragedy. I may be a bit partial to this story because I can relate to it more than I'd like, but found this tribute to Rosenblatt's daughter and her children very moving.

The story was sad. A young woman dies of an unknown heart issue and leaves a husband and 3 young children. The grandparent's move in and help raise their grandkids.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I liked Harris, the husband the best. He isn't in the story much but when he is it's great. When the Grandpa complains about interference from someone outside of the family, Harris just gives him a look that says it all. I hope he is able to move on some day and perhaps remarry. Too young to have lost the love of your life.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

It's always hard when an author reads their own book, but he does a good job. He lived it and it shows.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I did listen to this while making Thanksgiving dinner. I was very involved in the story.

Any additional comments?

Kudos to these grandparents. I don't know if I could do what they have done. I am about the same age but would not want to raise anymore children at this stage in my life.

Roger Rosenblatt's record of his family's pain and strength after his daughter's sudden death is full of wisdom. It's a good reminder of what matters, and a beautiful story of a family moving on well (because it's the only good choice they have before them), while cherishing stories and memories.

First of all, let me start off by saying that, unlike some of the other reviewers, I did not find the book overlong or disorganized. I did, at times, have a little trouble keeping track of the chronology, but I took it as it came because I saw the book as a set of "short stories" rather than a memoir. And I thought that the author, Roger Rosenblatt, Amy's father, was far and away the best narrator.

Yet I find the reminiscences to be overly idealized at best and sugarcoated at worst.

What came through loud and clear was how precious Amy Rosenblatt Solomon was to her father, her mother, her husband, her extended family, and all of her many friends, and how deeply she was missed. And I'm sure that her good qualities far outweighed her bad. But still...

I know it is bad form to speak ill of the dead, but I also think Roger Rosenblatt did Amy a great disservice by turning her into an unvarnished, untarnished Saint. I think she would have been a lot more humanized if her father had recollected her having an occasional meltdown, or making a snide remark, or being in some other situation in which she was not at the top of her game.

And, surely her children were extremely traumatized by her death, yet, while the two older ones were seeing a child psychologist to work through their feelings, everything was depicted as "fine, fine." Their schoolwork didn't suffer, and they didn't seem to suffer more than the usual childhood kinks.

Her husband, as well, was deeply wounded, but I didn't hear much about that, either.

I think this extended essay was a form of therapy for Mr. Rosenblatt, and I guess he didn't want to violate anyone's privacy, but why publish it if you are not going to present a well-rounded narrative?

This memoir about the death of his 38 year old married daughter, is a heart wrenching and a lovely tribute of a daughter, mother, wife and sister told with emotion and depth. The author reads this book, which truly adds to the entire book. A wonderful gift to a daughter and the entire family she has left behind that is simply one of the most memorable books I have heard. Highly recommend this audible version especially. Unforgettable.

My deepest sympathies to anyone who has lost an adult child. This memoir/story was a sad retelling of memories and the grandchildren moving on. The author didn't focus on any subject for more than 60 seconds. His thoughts were scattered and disconnected. The family obviously has great wealth, knows many famous people and lead privileged lives. Death and grief visited them none-the-less. His tone gave the impression that they should be exempted from such tragedy. The book had a few redeeming points, but the bragging of their accomplishments; possessions; and position overshadowed them.

I liked this short memoir about the death of the author's daughter and the new family that they created. It reminded me a bit of how my dad, sister and I ended up living together after my mother died - it was a different type of arrangement for us, but it worked. I liked seeing how this family came together and altered their living arrangements to create a new family unit. I listened to the audible version; the author read the book, which I thought was quite fitting. Many people don't like when the authors read their books and some authors should never read their books. But in this case, it worked; after all, it is his story to tell.

Thanks Audible for the freebie. Although sad the story is an okay listen. Story is from the grandfathers point of view after his daughter dies and he helps to raise his grandchildren. I don't usually go for the sob stories but I downloaded this story since it was free. This book takes you through day to day life without a love one. Easy to listen to, but I won't ever reread it.